Are we afraid of success?As we swell with pride about our history, the reflections seem to bear a common pattern, and evoke the same questions: With all our inventions, entrepreneurs, scholars, religious and political leaders, athletes, entertainers, teachers, and the inspiration of our rich African heritage -- why aren't we making more progress? Why are our schools declining? Why is the economic gap growing and not closing? Why are our urban communities in decline -- ravaged by crime, unemployment and despair?

How is it that our "spending power" exceeds many nations, but is not directed at solving our problems? How is that we have failed to realize the vision of Douglass, Garvey, Malcolm, and King? Is our deepest fear that we are inadequate? Perhaps we are afraid of success!

Now, we have this medium of the Internet that can remove communications barriers, provide access to resources within and outside our community, facilitate economic collaboration that has the potential to leapfrog many of our challenges, and galvanize our efforts into cohesive units. We must use all of our resources to galvanize our efforts into collective work and responsibility...unless we are truly afraid of success.

THE THIRD DAY OF KWANZAA

UJIMAUjima (ooh-GEE-mah) is the third day of Kwanzaa and means "collective work and responsibility." On this day we reaffirm that together we must build the good world we want and deserve to live in, and that we must share the good we cultivate and harvest together. It speaks of an ethics of work, responsibility, and sharing of the good of our community with society and the world.